Steam Deals and Digital Sales

Building games. Holy christ those things are crack to casuals - my niece is eat up with Minecraft and its clones

Elurin_sl said:

Anyone got any good recommendations for a game to play with my wife, who is not a gamer at all? Stardew kind of looks like something that might be close, but a little boring.

I picked up Subnautica during the sale and if that had coop, it might be decent.

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My girlfriend eats up anything TellTale. Between Walking Dead/AGoT/JP/Tales from the Border Lands it's pretty much a GF/Wife-intro to gaming company.

hodj_sl said:

You've pretty much covered it. Farm together. Mine together. Go to the events together. I dunno.

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There's a phrase for that. Hippie commune.

Elurin_sl said:

Anyone got any good recommendations for a game to play with my wife, who is not a gamer at all? Stardew kind of looks like something that might be close, but a little boring.

I picked up Subnautica during the sale and if that had coop, it might be decent.

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Magicka 2. There's nothing like accidentally killing each other to keep things entertaining.

Tanoomba_sl said:

Portal 1 & 2 are great co-op.

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Not for non gamers, especially not for spouse non gamers.
To be more helpful I suggest what Sulrn said the Telltale games like walking dead or fable series, you play she makes the decisions. Great for non gamers.

Guildwars 2 but only after she has put in 20 hours solo snd enjoys it or like any MMO you end up baby sitting and that is no fun for anyone.

Sulrn_sl said:

My girlfriend eats up anything TellTale. Between Walking Dead/AGoT/JP/Tales from the Border Lands it's pretty much a GF/Wife-intro to gaming company.

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Are they actually co-op though? I'd guess Borderlands is (assuming it's like Borderlands 1/2?), but the others I can't find anything mentioning it.

On my short list of possibilities is Trine 1/2/3, Portal 2, Borderlands 2, Castle Crashers, and any of the Lego games. I'm thinking Diablo 3 and just about any MMO might be options if she's open to them. I'd like to play something like Rust (or any other survival/build type game) with her, but the community is such a toxic pile of shit that it makes me leery (and who wants to wake up to your base being ransacked overnight?).

Elurin_sl said:

Are they actually co-op though? I'd guess Borderlands is (assuming it's like Borderlands 1/2?), but the others I can't find anything mentioning it.

On my short list of possibilities is Trine 1/2/3, Portal 2, Borderlands 2, Castle Crashers, and any of the Lego games. I'm thinking Diablo 3 and just about any MMO might be options if she's open to them. I'd like to play something like Rust (or any other survival/build type game) with her, but the community is such a toxic pile of shit that it makes me leery (and who wants to wake up to your base being ransacked overnight?).

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How much of a non gamer are they? If they know where the buttons are without looking above will work, if they don't normally play games above will just be frustrating for both of you for different reasons. I can enumerate those reasons if you want.

wait you guys don't give your wife an unplugged controller and then play the witcher 3 and tell her she is controlling Roach?

Hatorade_sl said:

How much of a non gamer are they? If they know where the buttons are without looking above will work, if they don't normally play games above will just be frustrating for both of you for different reasons. I can enumerate those reasons if you want.

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Pretty much a phone app only type of gamer. We did play the Sims way back in the day on PS2 I think.

I'm not sure what you mean by buttons, unless you're just saying instinctively know something like WASD without looking. But that shouldn't take but 10 minutes to get comfortable with.

That's why I want something co-op though, so she's not just getting her ass kicked and getting frustrated. I'm a pretty patient gamer (I have a RL friend who is generally really slow about any game; we spent like 15-20 minutes blowing up tires and concrete blocks before every mission in The Division waiting for him to be ready). Of all those games listed, I feel like everything except Borderlands 2 would be pretty casual friendly (and Borderlands 2 is the only one I've played). I'm also throwing the MMO idea around just because they all seem to hand-hold a ton at the beginning. Plus, there are a shit load that are F2P.

Elurin_sl said:

Pretty much a phone app only type of gamer. We did play the Sims way back in the day on PS2 I think.

I'm not sure what you mean by buttons, unless you're just saying instinctively know something like WASD without looking. But that shouldn't take but 10 minutes to get comfortable with.

That's why I want something co-op though, so she's not just getting her ass kicked and getting frustrated. I'm a pretty patient gamer (I have a RL friend who is generally really slow about any game; we spent like 15-20 minutes blowing up tires and concrete blocks before every mission in The Division waiting for him to be ready). Of all those games listed, I feel like everything except Borderlands 2 would be pretty casual friendly (and Borderlands 2 is the only one I've played). I'm also throwing the MMO idea around just because they all seem to hand-hold a ton at the beginning. Plus, there are a shit load that are F2P.

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My experience as a patient gamer and loving husband, below is where things fell apart at various times into the play time:

Portal: WASD while mouse looking and remembering to left click vs right click or vice versa. Playing portal 2 without prior experience with first person shooters or thinking with portals for that matter is rough for the casual gamer.
Trine: Any of the parts that require precise jumping or timing lead to frustration or me just pulling her along using the waypoints.
Borderlands: Aiming/moving/shooting staying alive, inventory management.
Castle Crashers and the like: Would loose where she was often enough it killed her.
Magicka: Failed big time as it is very nuanced to cast the correct spells, was hilarious but we got nothing done.
Lego Games: An of the bits that required precise jumping or powers to climb areas then jump under a time constraint.
Diablo 3: Inventory management, screen sharing would become an issue sometimes but that was me pushing along too fast.
MMOs:
Everquest-Dying in the commons at level 4 with no idea where.
World of Warcraft-circa 2005, did good up to level 25 or so but became more of a babysitting job then fun, same with Guild Wars 2.

Haven't tried survival games yet, might be something to try, I suggest ARK if you have the PC power for it.

Most fun we had was various twin stick shooters, fighting games, and watching each other play Skyrim or Fallout 4, but best time together is again the telltale or single player horror games.

Try them and I hope you have better luck, but she would have to be less casual then you make out.

Oh if you both like racing games Track Mania is where it is at.

I considered something like Steam Link, with 2 controllers so we could just use the TV, but it sounds like the wireless on it is kind of shit.

Plus, I'm not sure how coop works on a lot of games if you're trying to play with a single PC/Steam account.

A Virus Named Tom would be perfect.

Personally, I'm getting a sense you're looking at this the wrong way, but you and your woman aren't me and the dozen non-gaming women I've dated. Coop only is cutting out hundreds of good, simple to pickup and play games that are a wonderful experience that can be shared together if you're wiling to game together without a controller in your hands.

Telltale aren't coop, but a couple of stories progress through multiple characters and can be played as a turn based coop I guess.

I retract my previous suggestion and offer Broforce where killing each other (accidentally?) or destroying your only means of advancement is a core feature and grounds for testing the nature of your relationship in a funny way. I also have a house rule that you say a movie quote the first time you use a new character or you take a hit of your wine/beer/drink and the franchise goes on the Netflix queue. Doing this with my Indian girlfriend was a blast learning what she was and wasn't exposed to as a kid (how do you get exposed to Rambo but not Terminator?).

Yeah, my wife doesn't want to actually control any part of the game, just make the decisions from the couch. So recent Ps+ freebie Gone Home was one, because she was telling me where to go. The TellTale games I imagine are pretty good as well. She gets to take part and control the story, without being frustrated that she can't push a button at the right time or fast enough.

Diablo, and MMO's never really worked, because she said I always pushed too fast, and so she'd get bored, or mad, and quit.

Heroes of Might & Magic, Sims, StarCraft.